I looked away for .3 seconds WHAT IS KIPGATE
OKAY. BUCKLE UP. FOR THE COMPREHENSIVE KIPPER HAYDEN X HAYATE BERLITZ-WILLIAMS (NIGELSLATERSHIPPING) LORE DROP
but before that, important context
kip is may and drew's son. he is peak middle child, in that he has every inferiority complex known to man and even a few man hasn't heard of yet. he's going to be a top coordinator, just like mom and dad. but especially like dad, because he is literally drew jr. in every way that counts - except that his pokemon team has a food aesthetic, which like, that's very may-coded of him i think. but emotionally? yeah. he's drew's son for sure.
hayate is dawn and zoey's son (and eventually chloe's step-son by polycule marriage). he contracted a Vague Anime Illness at age 5 that nearly killed him but he miraculously survived despite being given a death sentence. however, he is now frail and sickly for life (think, like, childhood arc cheria tales of graces). he is spoiled and doted on by his mothers and he develops complexes of his own as a result. he has a beautiful boyprince aesthetic and he is head empty no thoughts in every way - except pokemon contests, which he is very good at, of course. but he's just having fun. he doesn't feel like he needs to Prove anything. he's here for a good time! he wants to be young and free forever, obviously!
and before i get into their Dynamic, paging @winstrates, my number one collaborator on nigelslatershipping and the creator of hayate. lemonverse is extremely collaborative, actually, haha. since the very beginning it has very much been my friends "yes and"ing me to the extreme. most of my thoughts and ideas and insanities are not occurring in a vacuum! so all this stuff, and much more tbh, has been created with emily with help from some other friends too. it's our toxic yaoi sandbox!! if there is anything she would like to add, her word too is god's word here in nigelslatershipping land <3
now, these two know each other even before their pokemon journeys, because may and dawn are good friends. but here's the thing: hayate thinks kipper's sister is the coolest thing since sliced bread. meanwhile, after [unspecified event we are still deciding on], kipper develops a crush on hayate that never quite goes away. and i think they are genuinely pretty good friends too, even if half of the things hayate says are like omggg lime's so cool, i wanna be just like lime!! (see: this post, lmao. the orange phase comes a little later, of course...during hayate's first pokemon journey, probably. which is in hoenn, at the same time as lime and lemon are touring hoenn as per the timeline)
so, importantly - kip is a year older than hayate. he delays going on his pokemon journey so that he and hayate can go together and Be Rivals. which they are! though they travel separately, even though i think in kip's dream world they were travelling together, even if he is aware this isn't an ideal way to be coordinating rivals because like, only one coordinator can win each contest, of course. but he'd still be devastated obviously.
now, of course. they're pretty young at this point, so kip's crush is just that puppy love of youth! but, as they get older, it gets stronger - and hayate starts to develop feelings back. but, well...hayate was raised right. and dawn really emphasized that he had to have Boundaries with people that he likes (something many boys did not have with her when she was younger), and hayate is pretty...emotionally immature, even when he's getting to an age where he should be Growing Up. this is obviously worsened by the fact that he was given a death sentence at 5 years old, right, so like, the themes of growing up are extra complicated with him. he wants to be a kid on the road forever. he doesn't want anything to change, ever. so putting all this together, how is he dealing with his crush on kip? these feelings that don't have a place in his childish fantasy of how the world should be? by totally withdrawing from him. and getting pretty hot and cold with him, even if it's not necessarily on purpose. and by this point, even his idolization of lime is starting to fade away a bit because, like, he's getting older and finding his own way, right? so he's pulling away from the haydens in every way, it seems.
but even though all this time kipper has felt inferior to lime because the guy he likes is more interested in her than he is in him, this is like, really bad to kip. he sees this as the end. if hayate doesn't even care about lime anymore, where does that leave him, kipper...? their relationship is fraught, and colder than it used to be. kip is trying desperately to bridge this gap; hayate is ever-widening it, only to every so often come in with a warm smile Just For Kipper and some kind, loving words and a hand to hold his and skip off into the sunset, but just for one day, and then he's gone again, as far away as he was the day before. and so, they tour hoenn again as rivals. on a promise they made after the first hoenn grand festival, to come back someday and fight to the finals together. for one of them to win. but it's different this time. it's so different.
and, well. one of them is going to win. but one of them is not going to make it to the finals.
so, enter: kipgate. the point where this all reaches a boiling point for kip, who is now 16 and really In his complexes, which like. okay, side bar - may and drew are good parents. if not for the hayate of it all, kip's inferiority complexes with his parents and with lime would never have reached this extreme where he thinks he needs to prove himself as his parents' son and be top coordinator. and also feel like he can't do it and he is incapable and he sucks and he is just The Worst and no one will ever love him and he is the weakest link in his family etc etc.
the story here is that, during a contest battle against each other in round one, hayate beats kip - because kip totally breaks down. publicly. disgustingly. while getting his ass handed to him by the guy who caused all this in the first place. like screaming sobbing public breakdown. kip's crashout is on live tv. his parents are in the audience, horrified. his siblings are streaming it live from their current corners of the world. probably tens of thousands if not more people are watching this happen in real-time. and so, we have dubbed this event "kipgate" (this is emily's genius, as is so much of this aspect of the AU. everyone say thank u emily)
and that's it. that's kipgate. the apparent end of kipper's coordinating career. and, in his mind? The End Of His Life. there is a happy ending here, but hayate needs to work hard to earn kip's forgiveness, of course, and to change and, yeah, grow up. they will get their happy ending. but it's got to be a little life-ruining first, hehe
